BELGRADE, Mont. — President Barack Obama faced a polite audience in Montana today despite a selection method that might have let more protesters get inside.

Obama was confronted with no hostility during his second town-hall discussion of the week on his proposed health care overhaul.

The vast majority of the 1,300 tickets for the event in a tarmac hangar were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, some from Belgrade City Hall and the rest from City Hall in the larger nearby town of Bozeman. A few tickets were distributed by the White House to elected officials, community leaders and local supporters.

For Obama’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday, the system was also aimed at being general admission, but constructed a little differently. The vast majority of those tickets were distributed by an online lottery that made computerized random choices several days ahead of time from among those registering to get them.

There was some thought that the first-come, first-served method might give protesters a bigger chance of getting inside, because they could organize to show up early. With Montana such a reliably Republican region, expectations were high that Friday’s discussion would be more contentious than Tuesday’s.

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